Susanna Krizo

Hey Gengwall, I dislike stereotypes as much as you do; I was talking in general terms looking back to the sordid past of humanity in which men have used and abused women rather than seen them as their equals. Only a hundred years ago in the Western world a wife was a man’s possession, rather than a human being with positive rights of her own. I find it highly ironic that European women gained full personhood before the law in the sixteenth century due to the witchcraze: the old rule in which the husband was punished for the crimes of their wives, which was designed to ensure the husbands control in the home, did not seem so appealing when the punishment was being burnt on the stake. This of course gave the women only negative rights (being held accountable before the law for crimes), not positive rights (voting, right to keep their earnings etc.). So, yes, you are right: most modern men try very hard to keep their marriages intact, but if we look at the larger picture, it isn’t so pretty.